Brag About Yourself

Where do you find topics to write about? Both beginning bloggers and other types of nonfiction writers often ask this. Instead of my usual "everywhere, all around you" response, I'll detail exactly how this post came about: social media networking. A member of one of the groups I belong to in LinkedIn posted a link to the Psychology Today article as a discussion topic. I saw that item listed in an updates email that LI sends me regularly. I clicked, read the article and thought, "Whew. I'm doin' it right," as the LOL Cat People say. Just last night I'd been adding information to my Amazon Author Page biography section, bragging really. And in third person. Feels weird.

Sooner or later every kind of writer is required to provide a blurb or bio. For me, it's the most difficult writing of all. Worse than a synopsis. It's the same for pitching your services (yourself, really) to potential clients, or bragging about yourself in your website.

If this is difficult for you too, read How to brag about yourself without being seen as narcissistic | Psychology Today by Joshua D. Foster and Ilan Shrira. The secret, it seems, it to mention ONLY yourself, your accomplishments, and not compare them to others. I thought of the latest round of campaign ads in which one politician tries to run down the opposition. Makes me want to vote for the latter.

How about you? When you are dressed to impress, do you denigrate a competitor's accomplishments? Are you positive you write better than ...

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Humor in Writing

I have a headache. Can't think. You'll have to amuse yourselves today with my storehouse of humor resources:

Sites Tagged 'Silly'

Oddly Specific
Bitstrips: Living with Shakespeare
Action Figures, Play Sets & Nodders - Archie McPhee
Andertoons Cartoons About Writer
Cat Boxes
LOLcats and other icanhascheezburger sites

Please respect the copyrights and licensing protocols.

And while I have your focus on humor, on April Fools Day, the #scribechat at 6 p.m. (PT) may have as a guest, the inimitable Ultimate Cheapskate, Jeff Yeager. The Twitter chat topic is writing humor. No foolin'!

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Emptying the Email Trash

Ways to waste your money, time and talent:  Some guy just emailed me to call him. That's all he said.  I have no idea who he is, and I am certainly not going to open his attached file or call him.

Last week someone said he had found my website through an image search for "California Spangled Cats." He wanted me to hire him to optimize my site for better image search returns, because mine was 22nd in the list. Like, I care? Anyway, it's "California Dreamcats," the first one I did for a class in site design, and I don't think it's on the web. Now, that's creepy.

Another persisted (until I blocked the address) in telling me that my writing site can't be found in foreign search engines.  Why should I be concerned when it is only for English-speaking people, or those who want to learn and search on English terms.

Other hilarious favorites are the vendors who tell me that they have redesigned my websites, and I can see the improvements by clicking on a link. They fail to notice that I design and optimize sites.  Often they fail to discover my name, too.

But the all-time best is the guy who sent me the same message three times in an 18-month period, offering free articles.  Now, I like to feature guest posts, and some of the free articles on this site are by other writers who I know.  But this guy signed his emails with three different female names and directed me to the same two websites where the articles appeared.  Only, he kept mixing up the signature names and the by-line names.  I'm not sure he knew who he was. A little research discovered his true gender and name.

I'm also a little sad because yesterday I turned down two book manuscript editing jobs. Ironically, one was too well-written. I told the author that most of the changes I might make, I thought amounted to quibbles.  The other manuscript looked like a brain dump with little punctuation or capitalization and no quotation marks.  I told the author that either it is a new form of a novel, or the manuscript needs to be rewritten, which is a very costly effort.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm being tested.

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Writing About Writers

More secrets of a successful writer revealed! Two of these resources are so valuable, I keep them hidden in my browser's bookmarks toolbar.  That also means that I use them so often, I want them right at click, which is the same as at hand. Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, a service of American Public Media, is more than a database of poetry and authors.  Each day Keillor writes about authorial anniversaries (birthdays, publication dates and other events) providing background and details you might not know.

The Library Booklists and Bibliographies contains an enormous amount of material on books and writers.  The part that I've used the most is similar to The Writer's Almanac, and that is the section on Literary Births. The beauty of both of these resources is the additional information delivered about some of the authors.  Pick your favorite writer and search both sites to find useful material.

Finally, if I'm writing about a particular writer, or even a specific subject, I know I can always find a cogent quotation at Famous Quotes and Quotations at BrainyQuote. For example, the Quote of the Moment is "Every artist was first an amateur."  Ralph Waldo Emerson said it, and I am fond of reminding some that we were all unpublished writers when we began.  

Please, don't introduce yourself as such.  If you're a writer, you're a writer, published or not.  If being published is a criterion for something or someone, you'll discover it soon enough, so don't start out one-downing yourself. Hmm. I feel an "Inspiration" message in the making.

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Work From Office or Home?

Are you a consultant?  Uh huh, unemployed again. That's what we all call ourselves when we're out of work.  However, increasing numbers of workers are calling their employment "quits" and striking out on their own.  The pretty word for this is "consulting."

Richard Greenwald, a Drew University professor, wrote in the WSJ that:

20% to 23% of U.S. workers are operating as consultants, freelancers, free agents, contractors or micropreneurs. Current projections see the number only rising in coming years.

Freelance writers--isn't it nice to be in vogue? If only we show up in Vogue too!

Greenwald reviews the best practices of successful consultants/freelancers:

long term thinking
networking
having an office
entrepreneurial mindset

Networking is a no-brainer. If you're serious about freelancing or writing fiction as a career, you're already in long term mode. Thinking like an entrepreneur is more challenging for many writers, especially those who think of themselves only in terms of "creativity." We must also think in terms of business.

Too often, freelancers drift from project to project. That's a mistake. They need to have a business plan or mission statement. If all they do is take everything that passes over the transom, they will be viewed as a nonspecialist in a world of specialists.

Greenwald makes good points for niche writing and reminds us that we are known as much for the work we won't do as well as what do take on. While I'm game for learning new skills, I do refuse to try to help manuscripts that need developmental editing.  If I can't write a novel, I can't help you create one. I can only help make the writing better. The story is up to you.

The advice to not work from home surprised me.  I've sometimes longed for an office, even a little storefront in a strip mall.  This yearning became especially acute when my ex-husband admitted he didn't think freelance writing was "a real job," because I didn't rent office space. [snark removed]

Sharing office space and amenities like a receptionist, Internet service, copiers and fax machines lowers office costs and provides a more structured and professional atmosphere.  This is especially valuable if you must meet clients in person.  Starbucks or McDonald's don't cut it as meeting rooms. An office also helps freelancers establish a schedule, Greenwald added. 

Remember most successful writers' advice to "just sit down and write"? It helps to have a reserved seat and a desk for the laptop.

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Basic Books for Writers

Reading is an integral part of becoming a writer.  I advocate constant alert reading--that is noticing new items, differences from similar products, and differences from previous versions.  And I do mean read everything, not just  your writing format or genre.  Also read cereal boxes, food can lables, the front matter in phone books, letters to the editor -- keep your powers of observation sharpened and your evaluative skills at the ready.

Speaking of books, though, the Online Universities website suggests that all writers should have a grounding in literature. The basics it recommends:

• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway: Published posthumously, this book details the time Hemingway spent in Paris along with other literary greats, like Fitzgerald, as well as insights into the psyche of the artist himself. 

• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce: This fictional account of the life of Joyce is not only a good read but an interesting insight into the events that shaped the life of one of the world’s most acclaimed authors. 

• Poetics by Aristotle: This ancient Greek text is all about constructing the perfect tragic drama, but offers invaluable insights into the essentials of any genre of writing. 

• Walden by Henry David Thoreau: Check out this book to learn what it means to disconnect from society and focus on nature. Thoreau’s lessons on simplicity can be applied to the art of writing as well, where less can often say more.

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HARO is a Mega Network

Michael Stelzner of Top Ten Blogs for Writers and writing white papers reknown, interviewed Peter Shankman, the genius who built HARO. That's the "Help a Reporter Out" site that morphed into a resource for both writers needing experts to quote and experts looking for public relations opportunities.

Stelzner examines the phenomenon from a social media viewpoint in an article on his new site, Social Media Examiner, started last summer: How ‘Help a Reporter Out’ Grew to a Mega Network.

They discuss how HARO evolved from a Facebook group to facilitate his casual match-making between reporter friends and friendly sources:

As HARO grew, more people were asking me questions and I did not have the time to fill in all the answers. That led to the Facebook group concept as just being a lot easier. I could post the queries to Facebook and then anyone could answer them. That was a very easy start.

In about six months, the requests overran Shankman's email capability, and he moved the service to a website.

He and Stelzner explore the social media aspect of the service and how to build one of your own. Shankman stresses having good content to offer people who want to receive it and enjoy using it. He also has a vision similar to the one David Siegel writes about in Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business, that we are evolving toward one network. He said, "I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be Google Wave. Right now I’m really not seeing any value in Google Wave. I think it will probably be some sort of combination of Facebook and something Google does."

I'm happy to see my feelings about the Wave echoed and that others share Siegel's predictions about our future social and business lives meshing in a single Internet network, meeting many needs as HARO does now.

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DRM or Not?

Amazon added DRM to DTP. I speak code these days and get a lot of questions. Did I mention I've become an Amazon Author?  Two articles and a book review are available in the Kindle Store as well as my Author Page. You can also subscribe to receive this blog via Kindle (or download the free Kindle for the PC program).

But back to the All Caps Codes.  DRM is "digital rights management" and it's like copyrights for electronic media.  DTP is Amazon's Digital Text Platform, the program used to publish material in Kindle format.  As I uploaded my second article "Editing Your Writing", I noticed the new choices of adding DRM or no DRM to the file.  Supposedly it protects the work from illegal copying and/or distribution, a.k.a. "sharing."

Although I was fuzzy on the details, I opted for DRM, thinking that if I change my mind, I can always pull the piece and republish without the DRM.  Maybe not, however, because at the same time Amazon added DRM, it also changed the terms of this service, reserving the right to sell uploaded material forever, as it was when first published.  Yes, you can petition to have a piece removed, but what do you want to bet that would take forever also?

The effects of DRM on sales of published material are debatable.  Magellan Media Partners claims to have hard data suggesting DRM is negative:

Initial results suggested that freely available digital content coincides with greater paid sales.

I'm sticking a copyright notice in everything I publish for the Kindle, along with an FTC disclaimer for book reviews.  Together, my CYA pronouncements eat up four lines. And I'll DRM my DTP pieces until I see confirmation that it somehow hurts sales. It's not like I don't "share" all the time in various locations online and in real life.

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More Blog Traffic

How can I attract visitors, new bloggers ask, right after they ask what to blog about. Techniques to promote a blog are legion: list it in all directories, register with major search engines, get a domain name, host it yourself, use keywords, put the URL in your signatures, and interact with other bloggers to name just a few.

Let's focus on the latter. We are drilling down here, so pay attention. Take notes. One way is to build relationships with other blogs and their writers including joining blog groups like MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog, both featured at A Writer's Edge. Exploit those services to their fullest. Visit other blogs and offer to write guest posts and invite those bloggers to do the same. Engage in #BlogChat on Twitter (Sunday at 6 p.m. PT). Most of all, comment on posts in other blogs.

I'm not going to leave that last suggestion just hanging because too many times new bloggers simply race about the web, leaving anonymous comments like "me too!!!" or "I agree" on any blog they encounter. Why is this WRONG? It violates the big three of commenting to build traffic:

1. Always use the same identification (name, image, brand, signature, blog URL). This practice builds interest and the consistency raises your visibility as well as reputation. People will know who you are and what your blog is about.

2. Be quick and clever. The most useful comment is one of the first on the latest post. Leaving comments early and often on blogs with the greatest numbers of readers and interactivity will drive more traffic your way than helping out a dozen other newbies get going. Still help your fellow newbies, but don't forget how to help yourself.

3. Add value to the post. The brief comments cited above are obviously only meant to attract attention (if not anonymous) or sometimes to fuel a flame war. Try to contribute additional information or provide your view of the posting or the subject. Once you have a backlog of posts on your own blog, you can occasionally refer to one of them, but only if it is relevant to the post that you are commenting on. Learn how to code links into comments.

Remember, these guidelines are for those who are serious about building traffic to a particular blog. I welcome "me too" comments from my "Dear Internets" as my dear Internet friend, Paige in Paradise calls her blog buddies. Even more, I welcome viewpoints that oppose what I have written or suggest a different way of looking at a topic.

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Fear of Failure

Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up ~ Chinese proverb. Many people attempt to become successful writers from a prone position. That makes failure a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you are so terrified of receiving a rejection that you don't expose your work--to agents, a market, even a peer group--then your goal has really been to protect your fragile ego.

Or perhaps you are already seated at your computer but can't find the words to get started, to finish, to put into a query or cover letter. Again, this is fear of failure/rejection in the guise of rampant perfectionism. As so many other writers have advised, just write the damn thing! Of course you'll make mistakes and they can be corrected. Making mistakes isn't failing, it's learning.

Think of a baby learning to walk. Step, crash. Step, wobble, step, boom. How does a child ever learn to ambulate? Not by falling down, but by getting up and trying again, learning most of the time to improve coordination.

We all fear failure and would rather avoid the unnecessary pain of rejection. The pain is unnecessary because we inflict it on ourselves. We say (silently) that having our writings rejected means that we are rejected as human beings. Nothing is farther from reality. An editor or agent doesn't know you, she only knows your work, the letter or submission sent.

Are you just going to lie there and make yourself a loser? Or are you going to rise, shake it off and proudly take another step on the road to writing success?

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Best of Recent Retweets

Even better the second time around: @GLHancocks tweets and retweets, retweeted.

RT @DanGordon: I said it once, I'll say it again: Authenticity. Transparency. Passion. Patience. Perseverance. = Results. #blogchat 7:06 PM Dec 20th from TweetChat Retweeted by C J Jackman Zigante

RT @RKCharron: The word you choose reflects the tone you wish to convey and the image you wish to invoke.| Except in chats! typok #writechat 2:08 PM Dec 20th from TweetChat Retweeted by C J Jackman Zigante

New at AWE -- Santa arrived early for some bloggers! Today Amazon announced Amazon Associates for Blogger, a direc... http://bit.ly/4BrZHI 10:13 AM Dec 17th from twitterfeed Retweeted by Melinda Emerson

Checked out new Google search, found Listorious & a list for NewNewmedia by @PaulLev http://listorious.com/GLHancock/memberships 7:13 PM Dec 15th from Echofon Retweeted by Paul Levinson

Blogs feel very private to you, alone, hunched over your keyboard; but when you hit "Post" you're a naked, plucked chicken to all #writechat 1:24 PM Dec 6th from TweetChat Retweeted by kimberly gonzalez

I have a free article available on Copyright on the Writing Help page of my site: http://www.writers-edge.info/writing-help.htm #writechat 1:19 PM Dec 6th from TweetChat Retweeted by David Gerbino

@WritingSpirit Actually, writing articles is one of the ways recommended for fictionalists to get their names known-adjunct to book #writechat 12:29 PM Nov 29th from TweetChat in reply to WritingSpirit Retweeted by Writing Spirit

#blogpostfail: "If the man you are discretely having an affair with..." Right, only one affair at a time, girls! #copyediting #editing 8:25 PM Nov 25th from Echofon Retweeted by Jane Smith

RT @editorialdept Writers learn from what they're doing right as much as from criticism. Good editors cheer a writer on.#litchat 4:12 PM Nov 20th from Power Twitter Retweeted by pberinstein

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Free Book with Gift

Buy an AWE gift certificate and receive a free holiday book. This novel is perfect for the season. Popescue's Girl Mary depicts how a maid from a wandering Hebrew tribe encountered God and married her true love, Joseph. The description of the holy land, especially mountain scenes, may jar traditional views of the setting for the Christmas story. Depiction of daily life for the people of that time is interesting to learn, and the intrusion of Roman politics may shock your view of Christian history.

To qualify for the free book, give yourself or writerly friends gifts of editorial services. You can design them with me. Here are some ideas: an hour (or less) of publishing consultation, any type of editing or a manuscript evaluation. How about a combination package for your loved one's first novel? Advice and services for self-publishing are also possibilities. Email me for details and arrangements or call 858-571-5390 for faster service. A certificate can be sent overnight and redeemed by email.

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Find News about Magazines

Magazine freelancers need to know about their markets. A good source for news on them is MediaWeek.com. The site covers multimedia, but the section on newspapers and magazines is especially handy. Scroll down the page past news articles to find white papers. Are you a specialist? Perhaps you could write a white paper for this site. MediaWeek is part of Nielsen Business Media, serving the publishing industry with multiple sites, including Editor and Publisher, another source of information for freelancers, too.

A third website you might want to hit when you make your "rounds" is FOLIO, possibly even more comprehensive in its coverage and services. I see there every technical version of ways to deliver information and breaking news. I am especially drawn to the blogs. I noticed one by Jason Fell on this week's Twitterversy #afropw about the Publishers Weekly cover shot and title because I vigorously participated in forcing the @PW senior editor Calvin Reid to apologize for his choices.

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Facebook & Twitter on Google

Privacy issues on the Internet. They're baaaak! Since Google announced the inclusion of real time returns from Twitter and Facebook on the first page of search results, the virtual world has been atwitter with arguments pro and con. Some of these in a #blogchat last night revolved around *if* you want material from parts of a FB account to show up. Another question that went unanswered in the crush was about how much of a Twitter profile Google is privy to.

I have news for these newbies: everything but your Twitter password is readily available to anyone, and obviously passwords can be hacked, too. Hence, Twitter account and website hijackings, and I suspect FB corruptions also exist. How can there be another generation already that needs to learn never put anything online that you don't want seen by everyone in the world?

One incensed participant tweeted back at me: "@GLHancock That's no different than someone breaking in your home and stealing pictures. Are u saying there's no privacy ANYWHERE? #blogchat" No, I'm just sayin' there's no such animal as "privacy online." Maybe I should say "security?" Especially with free programs! Poor grammar aside, I wonder how these kids have been raised? Don't they pay attention to news about this or that supposedly secure database being hacked and resulting identity theft?

Writers who use social media as part of their promotional and marketing plans need to understand there is no separation between a "personal" account and one for your business of writing, whether you're an author with books, a freelancer with services, short story or poetry writer, an essayist or a working journalist. I'd expect writers, more than most people, would understand how identity and writing are inextricably entwined. Internet demands for transparency are doubly intense for writers.

When a search engine scours the Internet for information about you, it does not distinguish among sources for material. No human peeks and says, "Uh, oh. Naughty pictures. I'd better not snatch those. It might hurt this person's reputation." Search engines do not always observe a "no index" command. Drop bits of your identity around the web and they will be assembled to display perhaps a less than flattering, if more accurate, view of you.

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Gifts for Writers

Looking for inexpensive new books? In my Amazon Storefront are a few recently published novels and nonfiction, as well as older books. Some of the new I haven't even yet reviewed. For example, I'm still savoring The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Business Books: Get your business wisdom into print by veteran ghostwriter and agent Bert Holtje. It's a fascinating insider's guide for traditional and self-publishers, chock full of tips that are close to being termed "secrets" about publishing.

I know you are all writers and want to get published, so another great gift for yourself is a chunk of my time devoted to helping you along the path to success. Or for your writerly friends, give a gift certificate for writing, editing or a publishing consultation. Tell me what you'd like, and we'll customize the perfect present.

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Writers Born December 8

Celebrate the birthday of fellow Buckeye James Thurber and others:

• Roman poet Horace (65 BC; d.8 BC), born Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace in Latin)
• 1903 Nobel Prize winner, Norwegian dramatist, poet, novelist, and politician Bjornstjerne [Martinius] Bjornson (1832; d.1910)
• British writer of travel books, zoological treatises, novels, and an autobiography, [George] Norman Douglas (1868; d.1952)
• Irish novelist and poet Padraic Colum, born Patrick Collumb (1881; d.1972)
• Pittsburgh native and novelist Hervey Allen (1889; d.1949), author of Anthony Adverse
• Ohio humorist James Thurber (1894; d.1961)
• Welsh/British novelist Richard Llewellyn aka Richard David Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd (1906; d.1983)
• NYC-born poet, short story writer, and critic Delmore Schwartz (1913; d.1966)
• NY-born novelist Mary Gordon (1949), who wrote Final Payments (1978) and The Company of Women (1981)

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Twitter Mistakes

Guy Kawasaki does it again with Twitter Cluelessness at OPEN Forum:

Generally, if you’re wondering if you’re about to do something clueless, just don’t do it. This is because people might not know that you’re clueless, but if you do these things, you’ll remove all doubt. However, the last rule, and the most important, is this: Don’t be afraid to break these rules. Like I said, there is no right and wrong on Twitter. There’s only what works for you and what doesn’t.

1. Don’t tell other people how to tweet.
2. Don’t tell the world that you unfollowed someone.
3. Don’t ask people why they unfollowed you
4. Don’t constantly tweet mundane updates and babble.
5. Don’t use a small picture for an avatar.
6. Don’t use an avatar that makes you look too hot.
7. Don’t go crazy with hashtags.
8. Don’t use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
9. Don’t use long links.
10. Don’t call yourself a “guru” or an “expert.”
11. Don’t send out automated “welcome” direct messages.

Read his great article for explanations of each item. I'd add another: Don't use any Twitter feature until you are certain what it does. I did and offended someone I've known for years. Of course, if you are only using Twitter to communicate with friends and family, none of the "rules" matter. As always, this post concerns writers who are trying to build businesses or careers.

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e-Reader Magazines Ahead

Magazine publishers are prepping for tiny formats. A lack of good e-readers for magazines isn't stopping them. They are trying to stay one step ahead by readying small format digital versions of their offerings. A digital newsstand just for magazines is coming out in a few weeks, according to MediaWeek.com's e-Reader Mania Hits Magazine Publishing:

Condé Nast last week showed off what an imagined e-reader version of its glossies would look like, starting with Wired. And Time Inc. is developing e-reader versions of such titles as Time and Sports Illustrated; it’s expected to introduce those iterations early next year.

The article mentions other upcoming editorial products that will soon arrive on small media readers, such as the iPhone.

I've read New York Times' stories on a friend's iPhone. It was surprisingly easy on the eyes, but what I'm wondering is how this will affect writers and editors? Are publishers just going to pour the digitized copy into the applications or will writers need to learn a new, more concise method of preparing stories. Or will editors regain their positions of actually working with words? Will this revolution create more employment or continue the trend of consolidation and layoffs?

Just when we're anguishing over languishing magazines, hope pokes over the horizon.

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Gifts for Writers

Give yourself or writerly friends gifts of services. Design them with me. Ideas: an hour of publishing consultations, any editorial services or manuscript evaluations. Contact Me for details and arrangements or send me an email.

Help is available for improving writing, formatting manuscripts for submission or self-publishing, guidance through the confusing dance of queries, synopses, outlines, multiple submissions, copyright and all the other parts of the path to publication.

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Twitter Means Business

Why does my Twitter page have a higher PageRank (5) than AWE's main page (2)? King content still counts. Does this mean there's more rich content in my carefully crafted one-liners than in my carefully crafted blog posts?

Whatever Google's PageRank algorithm and the Internet community's perception of PR, I think this adds to the case for businesses participating in social media.

Rethinking Facebook for the sixth time.

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Writers Need Rewards

Do writers need to reward themselves? Isn't the joy of writing enough? I don't think so. Celebrate your successes--even the little ones.

This week's Inspiration message "Reward Yourself" appeared a bit disarrayed in the HTML version. I'm not sure how all those errant break codes crept in. I thought to repeat it here, looking better:

"The rewards for those who persevere far exceed the pain that must precede the victory." -- Ted W. Engstrom

Better parents know that good behavior in children needs to be encouraged with attention and rewards. Trainers feed animals treats when they do something right. Employers and organizations give out raises and recognition to people who have performed well.

But how often do you remember to reward yourself for good performances? As you mark milestones on your road to writing success, treat yourself. Give yourself something nice -- a meal in a fine restaurant, a motivational book or tape, even a greeting card you buy for yourself and pin to your bulletin board -- all are fine ways to pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Rewarding yourself for small successes is marking the mileposts both in your career and in a long haul project like creating a novel or crafting a nonfiction book. If you plan these celebrations, you have more motivation to reach the next goal. That anticipation can carry you through the dry spells and over the low spots.

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Blogs as Communities

Must a blog be a community? That was the question I kept asking in a recent Twitter blog chat. The topic was community building. I should probably stop questioning premises and stick to the subject ... but here I can ask it. Can't a blog be just a blog? Must the definition of a blog evolve? Sure, blogs have evolved with widgets and gadgets galore.

Early in blogging history (a few years ago) the focus was on getting started, then drawing viewers, then getting comments, then turning the comments into conversations and now followers, subscribers, "community"--whatever that is. When the marketing bloggers discuss this issue, it sounds more like a hub and spoke, star/fans model.

The potential uses of blogs are far wider than this narrow focus on interactive engagements. I suspect the notion of community also plays into the latest tide of "branding" (more stardom). Certainly the blog owner can supply a forum, or the blog may be part of a ready-made community like Facebook or Ning provides. I'm still thinking Google Wave.

Every additional feature built in or tacked on to a blog requires additional investments of time, thought and energy. If you can entice the audience to contribute (unpaid) such expertise, so much the better. Just don't forget the basis of good blogging: providing rich content. That also takes time, thought and energy.

Is your blog a community? Do you want it to be? What is a community? If you build a community, what part does the blog play and can it get lost? What might you lose? What might your original readers lose? What are the gains? Your contributions in comments are most welcome. Please, do converse and while you're at it, sign up to receive this blog by email or add the RSS feed to your reader. Have I left out anything? Seriously, what about community?

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What's With a Wave?

So now I have a Wave. It's not that I don't know what to do with it, but ... I don't know what to do with it. Seems like it might be a good device with which to teach a class or hold a discussion because it features simultaneous logins by many people. What would you like to see, do, take part in? I wonder if it would work to hold a live author interview? I have a few (authors) at my fingertips. Google isn't calling this one "beta", but now "preview". We're still trying it out. Maybe I'd better just try a "chat" first to see if that's feasible. What do you think?

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Chat with Me

On Twitter today are two chats I usually participate in. Beginning at noon Pacific time (you right coasters--count forward) the Write Chat takes place under the hashtag #writechat . It lasts about three hours.

Then at six p.m. (PST) comes the ever-rowdy, more marketing-oriented #blogchat for an hour or more, depending on how long participants want to continue.

The best way I've found to participate is through Tweet Chat. Sign in with your Twitter info, then enter the hashtag of the chat you want into the space at the top of the page and click on "Go". Zip! You're in the chatroom, ready to begin.

Introduce yourself and say you're new to the chat. We'll be kind! To catch someone's attention, begin your message like this: @GLHancock. Plunge into a convo or initiate one of your own and maybe someone will respond. Messages are limited to about 120 characters because TweetChat automatically appends the hashtag of that chat room. Look around the boxes, and you'll see helpful icons like character count, ways to control the refresh speed, reply and retweet symbols, and even a way to eliminate annoying bots and spammers from view ("block").

If you want to try to participate in a chat via your Twitter interface or mobile device, search for the one you want by hashtag. You'll need to remember to put that hashtag in each post or your message won't go to the chat, just out in your regular Twitter stream. All your remarks in a chat go into your main stream, too. Take care, it's easy to forget that in the heat of debates. Also, you may need to keep refreshing the view to see new tweets. See you there?

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Universal Literate Dummies

Publishing prediction: by 2013 we will be a world of literate dummies.

Put together Seed magazine A Writing Revolution, predicting universal authorship in three years, with Publishers Weekly Viral Issue: Creating Your Viral Loop on Twitter, providing plans to create book buzz -- and whadda ya' got? We'll all be authors too busy marketing on social media to read each other's works. No, seriously, one is scary and the other, scary useful.

We'll know everything about friending, following, facing up to spaces, tweeting, buzzing, and the content we create ourselves (maybe) and nothing about anything truly needed in life. Maybe.

I'm hedging my bets here, because I've usually been at the vanguard of more than just the Baby Boomers, and I don't have a cell phone! Can you spell "technology backlash"? Our lives are reaching the point of maximum overload in so many areas, all depending on digital innovations. Will paper-print products be the last to go? Bury me with a book, a magazine and a newspaper, please.

All said, however, as I prepare to shift the availability of my writing products to the digital download gizzies at the beginning of 2010. Why not? New decade, new delivery systems. I'm not no dummy yet. (The grammar is always the first to go.)

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Writing Is Not Lonely Work

'Lonely. I'm so lonely' -- the wail of lone writers that writerly advisers whale on. Writing is a lonely art, they moan in unison, repeating until it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. New writers expect to feel lonely and blocked.

On the other hand, they complain about interruptions, finding time to write, finding a place to write. Some wonder, "Is writing really for me?" If you have to ask ...

Admittedly, creative writing in the sense of poetry, short stories and novels may benefit by peace and quiet and a slower pace. I loved rainy days, the house empty but for me curling up in the corner of the couch with a pen and notebook to let the feelings flow into verse ... it all ran out when I moved to SoCal where it never rains. Well, hardly ever.

Could the lonely writers be giving blessed solitude and opportunity a negative connotation, just because they've read and heard the term so often? If Thoreau did not take himself off to a cabin in the woods, alone, would he have produced Walden Pond? Ah, but that isn't fiction, is it? Perhaps I would not have written two novels if I'd had something more to do than make a home for a family which, at one time, included nine Siamese, a flock of hens and a garden in the summer. It was slightly less hectic than writing five news stories before 10 a.m. in a crowded newsroom with phones ringing, editors yelling and teletype machines clacking and dinging.

Some writers even work in tandem, married to their co-writing partners. One of the first published authors who generously advised me, James J. Kilpatrick, confided that he got started writing a children's book with his [first?] wife. "How lucky he is," I thought, "to have someone to share his passion in more ways than one." Kilpatrick's experience and advice existed in the days when the Internet was an academic idea and a military experiment.

Now attention, companionship, notoriety--whatever you want--is as close as your modem. So is education and help. And distraction. Writing requires even more self-discipline and self-control in the Information Age. I should know, having experienced social media overload several times. Can Twitter give one a heart attack? Maybe not, but you need never feel lonely again!

*waves to Tweeps*

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What's Real Serious Writing?

Are you a "real" writer? Are you "serious" about publishing? No, no sales pitch coming. I'm writing about terminology, what those words mean to writers at different stages of life and careers. They are often hot buttons that provoke knee jerk responses in chats and forums. Heated debate. Words that can't be defined in a tweet. Or a Twitter chat.

I tried to tell someone recently in a LinkedIn group discussion that these words are as controversial as the use of the term "professional" in conjunction with "writer." Everyone has an opinion, almost bound to clash with the next poster.

Beginners are apt to have more liberal, broad ideas of what it means to be a real writer, one serious about getting published, and striving to become a professional in the field (wherever that nebula might hang in space). They prickle at any suggestion that one must already be published, for money, in print, or even earning a living from writing. And rightly so, I think. They feel committed and dedicated; it's their dream and not to be discouraged. They have no idea what's ahead. And few have any notion of what commitment and dedication mean in a lifetime filled with disappointments, roadblocks, and disasters.

But let writers get a few credits to wave around (often from silly sites that anyone can contribute to) and they puff up with narrower viewpoints, considering that they have arrived. Cranky oldsters who began writing careers before Internet was available to the public can similarly set up strictures on the words in play. Some think that "the kids" have it too easy now with email and digital recorders and cameras. Me? I'd rather edit than try to freelance writing now.

Most pathetic are the writers who've "paid their dues" and had some degree of success (in their own limited definition--another hot button!), yet find time to troll the social media picking fights and acting all stick-up-the-butt about it. One implied that journalism is not nonfiction, and that news reporters must write with emotion. Huh? He or she also said I didn't know empathy from sympathy, a Psych 101 distinction learned about 50 years ago!

Sigh! And then you have the most real, professional, seriously published writers, obviously still dedicated to their art/craft (another arguable artificial dichotomy) and committed to write until they drop dead. The Great Ones. And the many midlisters who go one and on, churning out reading that is good for their audiences and publishers. I've never met one who was not gracious and generous in the treatment of less experienced members of the clan. They would not hold back advice or belittle the rawest recruit's efforts. Nor would they engage in arguments over when one is real, serious, or professional. It is inconsequential.

Not coincidentally, a real serious professional writer, Elizabeth Benedict, a big time author with lots of hefty creds (Google her) has edited a book of contributions by other author-stars who tell of people who helped them along on their ways. Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives will be published later this month by Free Press. A copy plunked into my backyard, and you can be sure I'll tell you more about it soon. I might even test Benedict's good graces with some questions about finding and working with--or without--a mentor.

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Build Social Skills

Good social skills for business networking: Build Own Business & Your Team. I found this excellent article by Sue Clement from Ezine Articles while performing social network housekeeping tasks today. Clement's tips for business networking in real life could be translated roughly to the electronic world. She recommends:

Use the Magic Words, please and thank you
Make frequent eye contact
Repeat person's name
Support others
Repeat what they said

On most weekends I try to catch up with the influx of activity in my BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog accounts. My version of a good social skill is to acknowledge everyone who contacts my account or this blog in any way: visiting, as a fan or friend or joining the group or just leaving a message in either account. Please and thank you.

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Web 2.0 for Authors

LitMatch is morphing into AuthorAdvance, a new social network. According to the owner, Christopher Hawkins:

AuthorAdvance is a complete social network that lets writers connect, share interests, and find help with their work. Expanded listings allow users to add and edit publishers, markets, contests and resources to help them improve their work and find publication. Enhanced submission tracking helps writers organize their careers and free up more time for writing. Best of all, everything's connected, making it easier than ever to find the information you want and meet people with similar interests and goals.

I was supposed to be getting a scoop on the big reveal and preview access, but that hasn't come through yet, so I can't give my impressions. If indeed it helps free up time to write, it will eliminate one of the greatest complaints working writers have: too little time to write for dealing with the "business" that surrounds a writing career.

I'm a little concerned, however, with the description of AuthorAdvance as a "complete social network" because the existing distractions of Tweety, MyFace and SpaceBook [sic], plus blogs, forums, websites and more already eat up writers' time. I should know!

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Content for Writing Sites

Thinking of setting up a blog or site about writing? I've found just the place to obtain content. At the iSnare articles marketing site are 2,330 (their count) articles on writing. No kidding, I found 78 pages of approximately 20 links each to full length pieces. I estimate about 1500 offerings, woven with numerous Google ads.

The site offers RSS feeds that will automatically populate a web page with the articles. Consequently, someone who knows absolutely nothing about writing and editing can set up a blog or a site on writing. I recognized few of the bylines, and the ones I did are not top tier writers.

The way I found the source was by visiting a new Twitter follower's site and backtracking through layers of links. Makes me wonder why I bother to whip up these original postings.

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Writing for the Future

If you could have a positive impact on hundreds of thousands of people in the future, would you do it? I'm not setting up a sci-fi plot or harping on global warming (though it applies).

I refer to the opportunity for TV writers, producers, sponsors and supporters to help change factors underlying the most prevalent public health dangers: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, addictions and mental illnesses. According to the ground-breaking Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, these health issues are highly associated with childhood trauma like:

# Recurrent physical abuse
# Recurrent emotional abuse
# Contact sexual abuse
# An alcohol and/or drug abuser in the household
# An incarcerated household member
# Someone who is chronically depressed, mentally ill, institutionalized, or suicidal
# Mother is treated violently
# One or no parents
# Emotional or physical neglect

I saw the valid and shocking statistical results from this well-designed research. The more traumas a person experiences before the age of 18, the greater the probability that he or she will develop one or more of the health problems listed above. Not just "twice as likely", but in the hundreds, even thousands of times greater chances.

After presenting this compelling material, I asked Dr. Vincent J. Felitti, author of the work, about solutions for the resulting health issues beyond psychotherapy and psychoactive drugs. He shrugged and said, "I don't have any." What he does have is a vision for a preventative scenario: soap operas.

"When you go into the homes of these [damaged] people, what do you find? Always, a television. And what do they all watch? Not CNN, but soap operas." He explained that many people need positive modeling to become better parents. We must start this change where it would be most effective. People at risk do engage with television, and watch programs like the soaps, looking to the characters for clues as to how to act, Felitti said.

I've seen this idea play out in the 40 years I've been hooked on "Days of Our Lives", my surrogate family. Last spring, the series featured characters "greening" their homes and businesses (global warming), and everyone carried water bottles and worked out at the gym. Writers could weave in mentoring on the ACE Study factors through the intricate plot lines. I'm thinking that for all her heaving and weeping about being such a good mother, Sami hardly ever has her children around. She neglects them. Maybe Sami could actually learn to be a good mother.

Other TV programs people watch in droves are the so-called reality ones, which suggest another opportunity to begin a parenting revolution. If people are going to suckle at the teat of the great boob tube, let's give them nourishment for the future. It is a challenge that taxes writers' creativity and program investors' far-sightedness and dedication to values easily mouthed and more difficult to actualize.

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Writers Social Networking

Unless you're promiscuous, virtual networking is a confusing mine field. Being an "early adopter" of technology is easy: you jump in and if it doesn't work well enough, drop it. Not so easy with people, especially if all the nonverbal cues (facial expression, body language, voice) are missing.

I'm still working out my "linking policy" with LinkedIn, the online business networking service. A spate of "invitations" to join networks of people I don't know from Eve or Adam arrived, along with one from Meryl K. Evans, whom I recalled as an I.T. guru and now run into in writing groups.

I was still operating as a LAMB, rather than a LION (whose network is open to anyone). With people, I'm usually quite conservative and followed LinkedIn's advice. It seems to say, "Really know in life those you network with." I had pretty much limited mine to people I have worked with or for. Meryl pointed out that we know each other from Twitter chats, and that led her to invite me on LinkedIn.

It was time for more guidance, and I found How do you use your social networks? | Linkedin to Business. Viveka von Rosen's article describes a networking style closer to what I think I am trying for: strategic. I don't need to be a LION, yet my initial plan is too limiting, because I know I do want to connect with Meryl, and it is short-sighted of me to rebuff anyone like her who reaches out to me in this way. Also, it is the time to be turning around and holding out my hand to others.

Back to the original dilemma: why to follow whom in Twitter.

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Writer Chats Time Converter

Missing Twitter writing chats because of time differences? Bookmark The World Clock – Time Zone Converter. Sunday chats converted to PDT: noon-3 #writechat, 6-7 #blogchat. See you there?

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Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest

Michael Stelzner has opened nominations for his 4th annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest over at his Writing White Papers blog. When I just looked to see how many people had commented (191), my eye caught on this one from a "Paula B":

Eeek, how can I choose between Michelle Rafter and Georganna Hancock? Okay, this year I'll nominate Georganna's A Writer's Edge at http://www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html. Next year it will be Michelle.

I never get tired of reading Georganna. She always seems to come up with new angles on issues of interest to writers, and she's a hoot besides. Full of personality, but not that awful snarkiness you find so often these days. A truly original thinker.

*screams like a girl* TY, Paula. I know who you are! I've been waiting four years just to be nominated! Now I must run over to see Michelle's obviously excellent production.

Nominating is apparently the same as voting. Stelzner's instructions:

How to Nominate Your Favorite Writing Blog:

1. Reply to this message with your nomination (bottom of list)
2. You have only one vote (only your first will be counted)
3. Please include the web address of the blog (http://www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html)
   
4. Explain why you think the blog is worthy of winning this year’s award?

To make the cut, a blog must be nominated more than once.

Nominations must be received by September 11, 2009.

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Power Graphics for Writers

Flow charts meet social media at Applicant. Being a sucker for models, I appreciate some of this site's offerings, like the LinkedIn: The Ultimate Tool for Job Hunters and A Visual Guide to Twitter, a road map to using the Web 2.0 service for business.

Another fascinating graphic I found is a Amazon Acquisitions and Investments at CreativeBits.org showing a twisted path you could puzzle over forever. I'll bet you had no notion that Amazon owns, absorbed or controls so many other companies, did you?

Now, if we could mash up these three powerful information sources, we could probably chart our ways to fame and fortune by using Twitter to promote our services and our materials that are on Amazon for employment opportunities through LinkedIn. Something to think about.

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Manage Yourself Online

Let's say you're looking for work, a new job. You have a resume, LinkedIn Profile, Twitter account, maybe even a Facebook entry that you keep businesslike. Still, no bites. What could you be doing wrong? Plenty, according to Mashable [emphasis mine]:

Your LinkedIn profile needs to be absolutely flawless, since you’ll be judged harshly by recruiters who are analyzing you to see if you fit their corporate needs. That means no spelling or grammatical errors and it should be completely filled out, leaving no experience or details out. Think of your profile as an asset and as a portrait of you as a professional who someone would want to possibly hire for a newly available job.

And if you're trying to sell yourself as a writer or editor--buns beware! This is not the place for text-speak or Twitter talk. Twitter, however, provides opportunity to display your facility with succinct, tight writing that provides information or cogent commentary (not just a field of links to other people).

If you're going to incorporate social media or Web 2.0 to find a new job or freelance gigs, then use each service to its fullest extent, deeply and regularly. Common sense suggests you can't keep up with all of them, so limit your participation to the number you can manage in an amount of time you carefully control.

Finally, interlink the services you use, but take care to always keep in mind where your updates or "status" messages will appear. Don't load one message into a single service that blats out the same clipped quip to all your web 2.0 outlets. While consistency is a benefit, so is expressing a well-rounded grasp of your field.

You might want to use one channel to reveal a depth of expertise or specialization knowledge and another for displaying creativity. Some professionals even have multiple Twitter accounts for different purposes. Debbie Ohi, for example, uses one mostly for personal replies and another for passing along general information to her followers. Some have one for personal friends and another for advertising purposes.

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Finding Free Photos

How do you find out if a picture is in the public domain and therefore publishable without paying a fee? Someone needed photographs of historical figures. The long, complicated explanation involves a definition of "public domain" (you can head a podcast on the topic), paying the U.S. Copyright office or specialists to run a search for you, or confining yourself to material published before 1923. Some works that were copyrighted between 1923 and 1963 may be available, due to a lapse in copyright, but you'd need to be sure.

A much simpler solution is to begin at the other end of the process. Instead of starting with a photo or other image, search for material available under a Creative Commons license. Or pony up the minimal fee to use a stock photo from a site like istockphoto.com or the Getty Archives. Searches of those sites can usually yield what you need. Also anything produced by governmental entities are owned by "we the People". Try the national archives, Library of Congress, state historical societies for starters.

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Right TweetChat Times

Oy! When I screw up, it's a doozy. In last Thursday's post, the first two writers' chats listed the wrong day. I've corrected the post, and here are the right listings:

#blogchat -- Bettering your blog 8-9pm CST Sunday
#writechat -- Writing and the writing life. 2-5pm CST Sunday

If it's any consolation, I just missed the #writechat, too. No wonder I was so confused when I stumbled into the #blogchat room last weekend!

This is even more embarrassing because a subscriber took the time to send me a thank-you email.

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Writers' Tweet Chats

Are you a lonely writer? Try a Tweet Chat for company. The other day in a LinkedIn group discussion I mentioned finding chats on the World's Largest Chat Room (Twitter). They are one of the many ways to use this social networking service to further your writing career or business. You can search a frequently updated Google Docs spreadsheet for information about Twitter Chats. Many pertain to running a small business, but the following ones are of particular interest to writers:

#blogchat -- Bettering your blog 8-9pm CST Sunday
#writechat -- Writing and the writing life. 2-5pm CST Sunday
#journchat -- Journalists, bloggers and PR 7-10pm CST Monday
#litchat -- Readers, books and authors 3-4pm CST Open M-W, guest Friday
#kidlitchat -- Children's literature 9 pm EST Tuesday
#editorchat -- Twitter writers and editors 7:30-10pm CST Wed
#followreader -- Read, publish, author, library, book blog 4-5pm EST Thurs
#poetry -- Poetry readers, writers, and others 8-9pm CST Thurs
#journ2journ -- Reporter help, journalism challenges 7-8:30pm CST Thurs
#booktweet -- Free and eBooks. 12-1pm EST Sat

If you live in a very isolated area and can't get to writing group meetings in person, a Tweet Chat is the next best experience. You'll meet your peers (and sometimes your betters), learn, share, and make connections you can pursue later in email and visits to websites. You'll also find new resources and solutions to problems. Some groups have a blog or web page with transcripts available.

You must have a Twitter Account to see the chat (search for the hash tag name). You can lurk and listen right in Twitter, although many find that using a third-party service like TweetChat.com, FriendFeed.com, or TweetGrid are more useful ways to participate. With them, you also must register, usually easy, and enter the hash tag name for the particular chat room you want to enter. From then on, it's a big friendly party full of talkative writers. Fun!

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Book Income Unlikely

Lit agent Donald Maas, Jon Talton, veteran Seattle journalist, are featured with me in the lead story at Jilted Journalists. Jim Gold's piece rounds up advice for laid-off news persons who might want to write books in their now abundant spare time. I suggest a focus on non-fiction, but Gold quotes successful author Jennifer Weiner from Poynter Online: "...I think the best thing for being a novelist is having been a reporter."

I turn journalists back toward their strengths in a time of need. It seems obvious to me that those who worked as reporters full-time to feed a family, are probably grabbing for an immediate source of income. Writing a novel does not provide a living wage, at least not until they become established authors knocking out best sellers--and that happens to a tiny fraction of all who make the attempt.

Gold estimates 20,000 reporters have lost their jobs in the last 12-18 months. Lookout freelancers, here they come!

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Comic-Con IMAX Adventure

I had the best of Comic-Con yesterday, thanks to IMAX. It was the best because I didn't have to go downtown to the convention center to see a preview of new IMAX technology in an IMAX multiplex theater. Digital 3-D IMAX films rawk! The new projection and audio technology combined with custom-designed theater geometry make for what IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond and tech EVP Brian Bonnick called a new immersion experience for theater-goers. Unavailable for home theaters, of course.

As I tweeted, Harry Potter did seem close enough to touch, and I ducked the cow-catcher on the Polar Express when it halted just inches from my nose. Whew! I skipped the Terminator battle (not a total nerd) but bawled through the birth scene in the latest Star Trek. And I think Greg Foster implied--JUST IMPLIED!--that more Star Trek movies may be in the offing. Can you tell I'm a trekkie yet?

Unlike most of the rest of the select group, I did not spend the presentation thumbing a cell phone or madly keyboarding a laptop. I watched, listened, felt and noticed my reactions. I removed and replaced the 3-D glasses, looked through one eye, then the other to appreciate fully that immersion. When viewing a portion of "Under the Sea", I melted. I love skin diving in tropical waters. If it weren't for the chill of the theater, I would have felt I was back off the Great Barrier Reef again. Oh, I did take notes with an antique pen on a pad of paper.

I can't imagine a better way for writers to receive most of the auditory and visual stimulations of the real experience without the expense and fuss of travel.

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Wired World Links

I think I'm getting tired of being wired! Last week Google alerted me to certain new listings with geofollow.com, webshotspro.com and SaysHer.com (how did they know I am female?) Because the GeoFollow came about right after I'd signed up at WeFollow (yet another useless Twitter app), I suspect some kind of linkage there.

Everybody and his dog is taking advantage of the Twitter API to mash up a little service he can monetize with advertising streams. Past visions of the Web becoming one big mart are being realized, though not on a pay per view scheme.

Sign up for someone's newsletter and right away you're being badgered to join a different website or service--or is it separate? Dig a little and you'll probably find it run by the same person/people. Put your words out on the 'net, and you'll find them minced up and part of someone else's soup, next to adverts that might embarrass.

I kept my commitment to join WebFace or BookSpace or whatever. I really did, and as I explored its features, advertising began to appear on my pages. Unexpected and disappointing. Then the site found and duplicated dozens of this blog's posts. Unnecessary. I could find no way to integrate Twitter (which I wanted). I couldn't remove the blog or the account information, and now can't delete the account. When I try to access it, I get a message that the account is "scheduled for deletion" sometime next month. In the meantime, people are "finding" it and pestering me to become their "friend." By pestering, I mean I can't access account settings to stop receiving its email and can't contact the would-be "friends" through the site, either. Sheesh!

Maybe I don't mind so much the autodiscoveries after all. Although I feel slightly violated when I first find a listing, those sites are usually simple and offer an easy deletion method. Most of the time I decide they are innocuous enough. I suspect this last social media experiment gone awry may linger in the cybersphere forever.

Lost in FaceSpace!

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Being Yourself Everywhere

About 15 years of Web design is under our belts. Although I'm the same girl geek, I cringe when I see my first crude attempt. I created it from an MS Word document and a third-party program from England. It was basically a three-row table: header with title, center body and footer with a copyright notice. In color. The page also had a background color and the text was centered. Eventually graphics appeared. I upgraded the version the image above links to around 2001.

Back then, three pages linked together with the same menu (a basic navigation strategy that beginners still often miss). The best pages have a continuity of design that helps the users know they are still in the same site. This might mean the same colors and graphical style for all navigation buttons or bars on the various pages, as well as the same page design, a practice I heartily endorse.

This is one advantage of using templates provided by "free" hosting services. You can't screw them up much, but you must also put up with their limitations. Some don't allow any HTML tweaking, so text butts right up against photos, and you can't get the title and subtitle to line up right. When you want what you want the way that you want, it's time to turn to a professional designer.

Yes, everyone needs a "presence on the web", but it must project the quality you want to be known for. Sloppy copy? Misaligned text? Fuzzy photos? Is that who you are? Some turn to a Web 2.0 or social media services as a surrogate site. They are an improvement over the free hosting, but still limit your ability to make the most of Web pages devoted to your writing career. Use them to your advantage in conjunction with your main website.

One word of warning: don't be a different person in each of the web sites or services you participate. Be who you are at all times, in all places. It's called authenticity and transparency when applied to the Internet. As I wrote in a LinkedIn discussion, "Everywhere I go, there I am. Everywhere you go, there I am, too, if I'm doing it right."

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Web 2.0 Experiment

My latest social networking experiment is quite easy to follow. MrTweet is a service for making and receiving Twitter recommendations: Georganna Hancock (GLHancock)'s Profile on Mr. Tweet. I've sent one MrTweet-generated request to followers (now 156 All Organic!):

Hi folks! Mind dropping me a recommendation at http://mrtweet.com/recommend?rec&user=GLHancock ? Much appreciated! #MrTweet

The only question I have is this: Why does Mr. Tweet's "5 Reasons to do so" page only list three reasons? Really only one:

1. Why do so? Because your recommendations has a real impact

Perhaps Mr. Tweet needs a content editor? At least a proofreader!

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Writers Reading Writers

Continuing the crime writing theme from yesterday at The Outfit: A Collective of Chicago Crime Writers: in Kudos for the Pros by Michael Dymmoch, he muses on great windy city writers he's learned from (what, no Studs Terkel?) and reminds us of peers with a question:

Blogging seems to have taken over as the medium for getting ideas across, and those of us with a life or occupation now have too many talented writers to keep up with. But all of them, wherever their work appears, continue to remind us that we belong to a community of people who value ideas and appreciate those ideas skillfully presented.

With so many terrific writers to choose from, how do you decide with whom to spend your time?

I admit to being torn: if I spend time reading the paper(s) at Starbucks, or one I buy on Sunday, I feel guilty taking time away from the computer. If I spend all day at the keyboard, as I did yesterday, I wonder what I missed in the paper, pauper that it has become. An article ripped out, literally, from the news is so much better a reminder of an idea on which to riff, expand, follow up, than one held as a bookmark, social or otherwise, or as a draft in my Blogger account.

And another way to choose with whom to spend writerly time is in the real life community of writers I am blessed to have around, as I wrote the other day in Socializing for Success. sai4jtqpnr

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Writing Nostalgia

Nothing productive happens here until this homage emerges:

Today is the 92nd anniversary of Mama's birth. She arrived in a little house on River Street in Franklin, Ohio, and lived in a succession of those houses along the Great Miami until the Great Depression and her parents' divorce kicked her out into the work world. At the age of 12, she had to leave her mother and school to keep house for her father and two brothers.

Ten years later, George swaggered into the lunchroom where she worked, hoping for a 7-Up to ease his hangover. He liked her cooking, and she liked taking care of him, so they got married and knocked up, all in the same day.

WWII took them to Sandusky, where he made bombs, and their baby girl died in Mama's arms. Against doctor's advice, she conceived and carried me while working at an NCR plant in Dayton, where I was born. The doctor was late, and the nursing sisters held Mama's knees together to prevent the birth.

I was nothing like the beloved baby I replaced. I was exactly like George, who kept on drinking and 17 years later wound up dead as a direct or indirect result. All that was left for Mama to do was to send me through college and, she prayed, into marriage.

Mama spent most of the rest of her life riding herd on another drunk and taking care of her little house. That was about all she cared for, staying in her home, the last one my father had built in the 1950s. She accomplished her goal. In late May 2006 on Thursday afternoon, feeling faint, she lay down on the floor and pressed her emergency call button. She died in the hospital on the following Sunday morning.

Happy Birthday, Mama. I miss you so terribly.

Thus we continue, along the lines of the Nostalgia is in Fashion post I wrote a couple of days ago. In it I failed to mention that it appears that Garrison Keillor and I also wear the same style Sacony running shoes, red with a silver stripe.

I'd been thinking about the Baby Boomer generation sliding into the time of life when we treasure nostalgia like Van Tassel's memoir, and how the sense of smell stirs memories so well. In the last month I've noticed at least two creative endeavors that take advantage of olfactory stimuli: an opera staged in New York City, I believe, and an installation in an art gallery in Oceanside, CA.

Here's my proposal: a scratch 'n' sniff book of Boomers' remembrances, reminders of fragrances along with the events and places of the past. There was a certain "little old ladies' hanky drawer" smell that I would love to experience just one last time--it was a combination of orris root, lavender, and ... what? The stink of Armco's rolling mill on a stagnant, humid summer morning. Apple Blossom toilet water for little girls (Hello Kitty® of the 1950s).

Words and photographs can recreate many details of those memories, but nothing stirs up how we feel about them like the smells. That is where we live, in our emotions. Yes, I saw and heard, touched, kissed and smelled my mother as she lay dying, but that memory is meaningless. When I catch a whiff of Coppertone® and the tang of ocean air, I am right back on a certain Florida beach with Mama, enjoying a Christmas vacation. Happy.

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Socializing for Success

“Success is not an automatic function of individual talent,” Malcolm Gladwell wrote in Outliers: The Story of Success. “It’s bound up in so many other broader circumstantial, environmental, historical, and cultural factors.” In other words, as I've said for years, it is blind, dumb, random luck, too. That aspect of the writing life, especially for a freelancer, may be the most frightening part. Success depends not only on your hard work, discipline and goal-setting, but also on circumstances, lifestyles and culture. The publishing industries (book, magazine, digital) are in turmoil, in a difficult state of transitions. Many prognosticate, but no one knows what the future holds for publishers, writers, and the final products.

To guarantee failure, insulate yourself against contemporary trends and innovations. Avoid social media and ignore what younger writers are up to. Pay no attention to predictions and new gadgets. Hide in your closet and plunk away on your Olivetti.

I admit I've dragged my heels about adopting some changes (other times I'm on the cutting edge, the often-irritated but enthusiastic beta tester). Every time I jump into something I resisted, however, I am sorry I waited so long. One goal this month is to accept Deb Sistrunk's invitation to join Facebook, now that I feel I have some control of my Twittering. (Is there a 12-Step group for Twitterdicts?) For Twitter, I have Lori Widmer to thank for luring me there and Steve Eisenberg for kicking me into the pool.

Later this month, I'll see Steve at a Meetup of the SDBloggers, mostly "kids", billed as a "Know Your Roots" event sponsored by Pathway Genomics (get it--roots-genomics?) That gathering is on the same evening the the SDPEN group of editors meet to rack up recipes for success, but before the SDWriters/Editors Guild meets to plan a 30th anniversary party. Oh, I almost forgot the other end of this writing cycle--I still need to read The Reader for my book club meeting this week!

The purpose of posting my social media business meeting calendar is to demonstrate a way of creating a cultural and environmental history, a lifestyle if you wish, to increase chances of stumbling into those circumstances in which hard work and discipline pay off by helping you succeed in reaching writing goals. So, come out of the closet and participate in the writing life around you.

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Freelance in Troubled Times

Economic Downturn. Recession. Mini-depression. Bonanza! How can the self-employed be overworked? I haven't time to figure that out. I'm too busy juggling projects and fielding queries from new clients. Apparently I'm not alone. According to a poll at FreelanceSwitch that asked, "How Has Economic Downturn Affected Your Business?" visitors responded (as of this writing):

Business is slow, but I'm managing 35% (56 votes)

My freelance business has failed 10% (16 votes)

I'm doing as well as I was before 28% (45 votes)

Business is booming! 26% (42 votes)

Joel Falconer notes:

While it’s true that recent events have made making a living harder for many people who put themselves in the self-employed or freelance category, many freelancers are finding that business is as good as ever.

If you land in the first two categories, however, you might want to register with that site's directory and/or search through the job listings board.

A few musings on why some writers may be finding more work: as other people lose jobs, many turn to writing a book or have time to finish one (and need editing help or publishing guidance); companies that laid off writers must now outsource jobs to freelancers; former employees decide to strike out on their own with new businesses, new resumes and online businesses--all of which need copy written and edited; and already-established authors are anxious to expand or establish new websites to draw more customers.

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Writers Eat Absinthe Now

Absinthe Mints

Absinthe is a strong, herb-infused, alcoholic beverage that was extremely popular with artists and authors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Due to its green color and purported hallucinogenic qualities, it is often referred to as “The Green Fairy.”

Available from the inimitable Archie McPhee website.

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Writer Resource Roundup

If you're a freelancer in Canada or one who works for Canadian clients, you may be confused about what to charge or what pay to expect. The writers.ca • find a professional writer in canada site can help you out. It offers useful information for all freelancers, including sections on professional practices and copyrights.

Have a book for sale on Amazon.com? Are you participating in whatever they call their authors' blogs--a good marketing move. Another, more hidden, bonus is the Amazon Vine™ Program, which "enables a select group of Amazon customers to post opinions about new and pre-release items to help their fellow customers make educated purchase decisions. Customers are invited to become Amazon Vine™ Voices based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews."

Who doesn't need more pictures to choose from? Shareapic - The pic sharing site that gives back! is a newer resource. I intend to join because of the front page tease (ignoring all the exclamation points):

We pay $0.22 per 1000 pic views.. that's more than some major ad networks pay their publishers!
- We allow you to add your Bidvertiser © code to your image and gallery pages.
- We pay out within 30 days!
- One click posting to Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, Orkut, and more!

Now, it's back to the cat race.

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AWE Tweet Chats Coming?

I may miss the #editorchat on Twitter tonight. [Is that faint cheering in the background?] I'm running off to the fair. After days in deep "edit brain" mode, my body needs a little fun, junk food, seeing plants, touching animals, and time spent with a close friend.

One reason why I joined the chats for editors and attend via TweetChat.com, was to try out the activity with a thought of holding one for writers. Of course, the hundreds of you who tag along in MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, RSS Readers, via email (blog and Inspiration) will need to have Twitter accounts--but not necessarily to Follow me or to reveal your identities. I also signed up with another service that provides private chat rooms and, of course, there's always the much less secure chat services provided by MSN, Yahoo, Google and Orkut.

Anita Campbell summed up the advantages and features nicely in a post on the Online Media Network The Cool New Way to Network on Twitter:

The benefits of tweetchats are many. They bring together people with similar interests. You can crowd-source ideas. You can carry on a group discussion in context – and using the right tool – “see” the full conversation uninterrupted by unrelated tweets.

What do you think? Would you like to have A Writer's Edge Chats? What form appeals most: general gabfests, directed conversations, specific topics, a mixture? Or about which subjects would you like to have a chat with me, other writers and maybe editors, agents, publishers?

Leave suggestions in comments, or send cards and letters (email).

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